'Raymond Davis' - Can Imran Khan Save America's Relationship With Pakistan?

Davis was arrested as a criminal, a murderer. Truth is, he is simply the one caught “holding the bag.”

Imran Khan Special thanks to: Veterans Toeday

(CINCINNATI) - The standoff between the United States and Pakistan over the arrest of contractor Raymond Davis is not going to be solved unless both nations take a step into that “no man’s land” of trust and honesty. There is no question about diplomatic status, this was a clumsy mistake made by State Department officials in Washington who had little or no understanding of the legal and political issues at stake.

Recent admissions that Davis is “CIA” mean nothing. Nobody knows what “CIA” means anymore, not since the wave of privatization that has spread to many of America’s critical security functions.

Were America honest in this, it would admit the truth. The CIA and State Department leaders had no idea Davis was in Pakistan or what he was doing. During the Bush era, duplicate lines of command were created that are still in place. Projects are “green lighted” and funded without oversight, projects that were and are not in the best interests of the United States. Evidence thus far gives a strong indication that Raymond Davis was employed in such a capacity. Moreover, he was obviously ill suited for his task and is dangerously unstable. There is little question of this anymore.

There are several ways to look at this. The one I gravitate to is toward finding those who sent Davis to Pakistan in the first place, a highly dysfunctional combat veteran, exorbitantly paid and obviously answerable to an equally dysfunctional organization. Davis was a ticking time bomb. The proof of his phone contacts with Taliban terrorists who have been attacking, not just the Pakistani army but civilians, is well established. What kind of spy keeps “sim cards” in his pocket when arrested? Aren’t supposed to be swallowed?

Davis was arrested as a criminal, a murderer. Truth is, he is simply the one caught “holding the bag.” Davis, now held in custody, those said to be rushing to his aid, his “friends” who killed a cyclist and fled, were actually his.accomplices.

They have fled Pakistan and are being sequestered somewhere in the United States, protected from extradition. More like Davis are out there. Working with them are corrupt members of Pakistan’s government and police organizations, enticed by money, some of it from drug operations in Afghanistan.

DRUG POWER

The $65 billion a year in narcotics being exported from Afghanistan hasn’t just destabilized the region. Some of these drugs, formerly opium paste, not fully processed heroin produced with equipment and chemicals brought into Afghanistan by American businessmen with key political connections, are trucked into Russia and are slowly destroying that nation. Most, however, is being flown west, Europe, America mostly, flown from airports controlled by the United States, airports where no uninspected and unapproved cargo ever leaves.

If America’s divided “chain of command” was “confused” before, billions in drug money has left it devastated and has made some aspects of America’s security, intelligence and special operations capabilities analogous with organized crime.

America’s “special operation commands” are a hodgepodge of duchies, some answerable to traditional command and control and some are not. Some may well have fallen under the influence of Afghanistan’s drug trade or the globalist cabal that is trying to take down Iran and Pakistan as part of the globalist agenda oft spoken of by Council on Foreign Relations Director Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Terrorist operations by Americans inside Pakistan, operations against Pakistan itself, under the “cover” of “counter-terrorism” would be part of that agenda. That agenda is real. That agenda is “front burner” in Washington, New Delhi, Tel Aviv and Zurich. Davis is little more than a tiny “cog” in that agenda, a tiny cog that unhinged and may well take the entire mechanism down.

IMRAN KHAN, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE

About a year ago, Veterans Today staffers, Jeff Gates, Raja Mujtaba and I spent a long evening with Pakistan’s reformist political leader and world famous cricketer, Imran Khan. The discussion was “no holds barred,” very much so, and Jeff and I were in clear agreement. We left the meeting with the basis for a friendship in place, but there was more. This was the only man we know of who could bridge the gap, not just between Christians, Jews and Islam but provide a voice Americans would respect.

Khan is the most trusted political leader in Pakistan though he has little real power. The military accepts him, the majority of people admire him and, eventually, he is destined to lead Pakistan. Were an “Imran Khan” on the scene in Libya or Egypt, he is the type of leader the people would be turning to. I saw in him what I estimate to be a perfect mix of anger at injustice and human decency, a man who can be trusted but not controlled.

This is also a man with a very international voice, someone quickly recognizable as a consensus builder. This is the man we need today.

Imran Khan has met with the families of the dead in Pakistan. Cynics cite this as a political “photo op.” What it does is establish his standing, with the families, families that have been pressured, threatened and even attacked. The young wife of one of the dead killed herself in protest because of these threats.

Has the pressure on the families, confirmed threats and now unconfirmed reports of an attempt to murder one of the family members, been orchestrated by a criminal organization with direct ties to Raymond Davis? When Americans think about the Central Intelligence Agency, do they think of an organization that hires armed thugs to victimize family members of crime victims.

If we accept that Davis was legitimately CIA, then we accept that those acts done to support him, acts that can only be described as “gangsterism” are CIA also? Are we describing a terrorist organization instead?

DR. AAFIA, IMRAN KHAN AND THE ONLY WAY OUT OF THIS MESS

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui

Dr. Aafia was sentenced, last year, to 87 years in prison for attempting to kill Americans holding her prisoner in Afghanistan. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, wife of a Boston anesthesiologist, mother of two (kidnapped with her and believed dead) has a doctorate in micro-biology from MIT. While visiting Pakistan with her children, she was taken off the street with her children and thrown into a van. Five years later, she turned up in Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan in a CIA secret prison, 85 pounds, wheel chair bound, her children dead, held and tortured for years for what was believed her part in Iraq’s attempts to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger.

However, it had been discovered that the story of the yellowcake uranium had been a fabrication. Aafia had been held and tortured in attempts to restore the reputation of Dick Cheney, “Scooter” Libby and Karl Rove, who had been involved in “outing” CIA agent Valerie Plame. Plame’s husband, Joe Wilson, had proven the “yellowcake” fantasy to be just that and the Bush administration was lashing out in humiliation.

Dr. Aafia refused to confess to this fantasy and was tortured and raped for 5 years.

Eventually, Aafia was charged with a crime and brought to the United States for trial. Her trial was one of the most shameful events in American history, utterly ludicrous.

Millions in Pakistan, from the highest military and intelligence leaders, long time friends and allies of the United States, to the poorest of the poor have united to see her freed. Americans, as they become aware of her fate, are joining in.

She stand convicted, a political convenience for the Bush administration, an abuse of every moral law.

Unless she is freed and allowed to search for her children, if they are still alive, there will be no way out for Raymond Davis who will be hanged, that is certain, hanged or Pakistan will fall and the Taliban may well control a nuclear arsenal.

Was this the game in the first place, putting nuclear weapons in the hands of the Taliban? Pakistan, a nation whose nuclear arsenal has been more secure than America’s as we learned in 2007 when warheads disappeared from Minot Air Force Base and were recovered on their way to “parts unknown” in the belly of an errant B-52, has long been accused. There is evidence that military contractors like Davis have, in the past, planned attacks on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons storage facilities, dressed as “Taliban.” Were they attempting to steal nuclear weapons? For what purpose?

THE DEAL

Dr. Aafia deserves freedom. She is held for one reason only, the vanity and debasement of Dick Cheney.

Raymond Davis may well be guilty of murder, spying and even terrorism or guilty of nothing at all. A legal process, as we are now proceeding, will decide this, one likely to be much fairer than the one that Dr. Aafia was subjected to in the United States.

Davis is very likely to be convicted and sentenced to death.

We can’t bring any of the dead back to life. There are more than the few we are dealing with here today. The dead have mounted up since 2001, first 3000 Americans on 9/11 and now millions, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, grieving families in homes around the world, America, Canada, Germany, Britain, Poland and throughout the Middle East. More are dying today in Libya.

All of these deaths are related.

If Pakistan explodes like Egypt, like Tunisia, like Libya, it does more than put nuclear weapons in play. A cascade effect, spreading across Central Asia and the Caspian basin, as predicted by Brzezinski, could become a reality with startling consequences.

Quelling the anger the people of Pakistan currently harbor against the United States over the Davis affair is critical to stability in the region.

The only way out is for there to be a trade, Dr. Aafia for Raymond Davis. There is only one person with the credibility to sell this deal to the people of Pakistan, a deal that may well require “sweetening” with more than the return of Aafia.

The trust between America and Pakistan has to be restored as well, a trust that, though Pakistan is the injured party in this instance, needs to be reestablished in America as well.

There is no person on the scene today but Imran Khan with the credibility and moral authority.

Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and a regular contributor to Veterans Today. He specializes in political and social issues. You can see a large collection of Gordon's published articles at this link: VeteransToday.com.

He is an outspoken advocate for veterans and his powerful words have brought about change. Gordon is a lifelong PTSD sufferer from his war experiences and he is empathetic to the plight of today's veterans also suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to feature Gordon's timely and critical reports on Salem-News.com, a news organization staffed by a number of veterans, particularly former U.S. Marines. You can send Gordon Duff an email at this address: Gpduf@aol.com